I've always been somewhat frustrated that some teachers get labeled as "technology savvy" just because they use powerpoints. As we are all discovering, there are many forms of technology out there. And although we do not need to master every tool, it's great to expose students to new tools and be able assist them while they navigate.
Especially in 6th grade, it also seems that it's our growing responsibility to teach students how to appropriately use technology. I have had several students whose parents allow them to create Facebook pages but don't monitor how they use it. We have also had some students in 6th grade discuss Facebook with teachers and think it's appropriate to friend-request a teacher. I recognize that many students are excited to use technology but do not know the appropriate parameters. I'm sure there will be other instances in the future where new boundaries will need to be defined, and we need to continue our efforts to enforce these boundaries and promote appropriate technology use!
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Nice comments on this topic. I especially liked: "I'm sure there will be other instances in the future where new boundaries will need to be defined, and we need to continue our efforts to enforce these boundaries and promote appropriate technology use!"
ReplyDeleteBack in September I pulled together some resources related to this topic and posted them on one of my blogs. You'll find the post and the resources here: http://tinyurl.com/yfp8hjb
Dennis
Nancy-
ReplyDeleteGreat point about FB and the 6th graders (or any student for that matter) knowing boundaries. Students act hurt when I tell them that I will NOT accept heir friend requests and can't seem to understand the fact that this is NOT APPROPRIATE. I almost feel like a parent to these kids in a way in the fact that I have to set guidelines regarding technology.
This is a great point you brought up!
Nancy, I'm really glad you said that about Powerpoint presentations. It's not an issue at the elementary level, yet, and perhaps never will be, but I've really been kind of offended that some other teachers, as you put it, get credit for being tech-savvy just because they use something that is essentially a fancy tool for giving lectures! At least at the elementary level (and I know in sixth grade, and I hope and assume that this is at least mostly still true in the higher grades, too), we try to avoid teaching lecture-style as much as possible! (And, that "Young Minds" article was pretty clear about kids not liking being "talked at". I doubt that they like it all that much more just because there's some visuals included.)
ReplyDeleteI took a course on interactice white boards at the high school, and was sort of distressed to hear some participants talking as if the interactive white board almost required Powerpoints to go along with it -- that would sort of defeat the "interactive" part, wouldn't it?
The weird thing is, before this course I was feeling a little bit "behind-the-eightball" because I didn't use Powerpoints in my teaching except occasionally to have STUDENTS create them as a way to make relatively low-interest content (Construct English, in this case) more interesting. But, Powerpoints wouldn't even register on the radar compared to the tools that this course focuses on!